People. Purpose. Pride. - Building for the Future Awards

My name is Nicole Wyss, and I am the Corporate and Community Engagement Program Manager at United Way of Dane County. I am nominating Sonia Spencer for the People: Building Strong Relationships award for her outstanding leadership and relationship building skills. For the past two years we have been partnering with Sonia and the MMSD school district to provide snack packs to students in need. Throughout this time, we have collaborated with several corporations within the community including TruStage, American Family and Summit Credit Union who have purchased supplies and volunteered their time to create 24,810 snack packs. Through Sonia's connections and collaboration, we have successfully delivered snack packs to 42 MMSD schools. Sonia is a trusted partner who accompanies us on every delivery, taking time out of her busy schedule to coordinate with school staff, making it easy for us to navigate our way around to each location. Her commitment and loyalty demonstrate her desire to cultivate relationships that benefit both the local community and the entire MMSD system/community.

Sonia is very focused on student-centered advocacy. She is always looking out for the best interest of the students and staff by identify the schools with the highest need. Her knowledge and leadership help guide the impact the snack packs are having on the students. Recently we delivered snacks to all 6 high schools making sure students were prepared for their ACT testing. While at the schools, Sonia often sees students and staff that she has known throughout the years. She always takes time to connect with each and every one of them, showing her genuine care and compassionate for them.

The companies we have partnered with to create the snack packs have a strong connection to MMSD, as they are also partners in the adopt-a-school program, providing money and resources to schools in need. Some of the top executives have accompanied Sonia and United Way on our deliveries, seeing first-hand the impact the snacks are having in the schools. Sonia's visionary thinking fosters community partnerships that help fill the gap needed to elevate MMSD resources and student success. Working together ensures the students receive the extra support they need to grow, learn and exceed.

As a Sea for a medically fragile student, who has also been with most of the same kids since kindergarten, I get to witness A LOT of various instructional styles. Kirsten hands down is so passionate and up to date (specifically with implementing math instruction), that even my old self is utterly engaged. I’ve had numerous students (especially a few of our Latino boys who have been struggling for quite a while now) tell me they love math and have gained a ton of confidence in the area. She just presents with a clarity and enthusiasm like no other. Every student is engaged. She knows literally everything about current math teaching trends despite being more towards the end of her career. And she remains flexible and gets bothered if even just one kiddo isn’t fully understanding a lesson. No child (out of our enormous class) is left behind. Kirsten is laser focused on making sure they are prepared for middle school overall (besides math)….including mentally and socially prepared. She can adapt to any situation in our classroom. I always hear her colleagues mention they wish there were more teachers like her! Couldn’t agree more.

I have worked as a CC Teacher in Ms. Fruit's 5th grade classroom for the past four years and am able to see in real time how she creates a lesson, teaches it, reflects on it and modifies it for future. She is continuously looking for ways to reach her students and improve their learning outcomes. In Math especially, the change this year has been a new approach to small group learning with peers (randomly assigned groups of 3 at whiteboards around the room, working on problems together) and the results have been amazing. Students who are quiet, possibly because they're unsure or lack confidence, have found a space to use their voices. Those who have grasped a concept now have a space to use that knowledge and convey it in a way that leads to learning for their peers who are still acquiring new skills. Ms. Fruit's lessons go beyond Math--they involve collaboration and social skills, increased engagement, peer-to-peer learning, active participation and diverse viewpoints. For me, a teacher of students with IEPs, this new approach has been remarkable, it's accessible and inclusive. It puts my students in social situations with peers that they otherwise wouldn't have, helps them give and receive input as they collaborate with peers to solve problems, it expands on whole group which can be a difficult space to focus, and has given them confidence in solving grade level material. She is innovative, passionate and tireless in her approach to student learning, and it shows in the enjoyment her students have in class and the pride the feel and show when they accomplish their goals.

I truly believe that Kirsten embodies all of these options; People, Purpose and Pride. I chose Purpose because Kirsten is a life-long learner and always pushes herself to offer academic excellence to ALL of our students. When she reads research or academic resource, she automatically starts thinking of our classroom and how she can use this resource to positively impact students. Over the summer she read Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl. She met with colleagues and had thoughtful conversations on how to make these protocols become a reality in our 5th grade classroom. Kirsten thoughtfully adapted the Bridges curriculum to a Building Thinking Classrooms model and the results speak for themselves.

Our students have grown in so much math this year. Our students not only complete grade level work, but they are becoming thoughtful mathematicians who can collaborate with their classmates to understand mathematical content. Our students not only do math, they can explain math and are vulnerable by asking for clarification of their peers when they are not sure what is happening. Witnessing this high level of discourse and math understanding has left me truly awestruck. This is because of Kirsten. She has a drive to make each and every year better for her students, even after 30+ years of teaching. She believes students deserve high standards and that they are capable of excelling at rigorous tasks. As a reflective practitioner, Kirsten is always considering what is best for kids and how she can do better. Kirsten has not only take on Building Thinking Classrooms work, but is also participating in the IMPACT Math Study through UW-Madison which focuses on the mentorship of preservice teachers. Additionally Kirsten has taken on other learning around AI through the MMSD course work. She has brought her learning of AI and Gemini into our classroom to support our students in creating readers theater and fluency passages that are relevant to what we are working on in our Benchmark Curriculum. She has also created a chatbot so our students were able to “interview” a famous Afro-Latinx person during Black History Month then create a poster about them. Working with Kirsten each and every day has truly been fun and a masterclass in providing high-level instruction, while also remembering to center the joy of learning and our students!

Principal Nkauj Nou Vang-Vue has played a foundational role in shaping, sustaining, and elevating the Hmong Heritage Bilingual Program within MMSD at Lake View Elementary School. Her leadership exemplifies “Pride: Championing MMSD’s Future” by centering cultural identity, advancing equity, and building a program that affirms historically marginalized students with academic excellence.

As MMSD’s first Hmong American principal, Vang-Vue’s leadership is a powerful act of representation. She intentionally centers identity in daily practice—greeting students in Hmong and English and ensuring students see themselves reflected in leadership and curriculum. This fosters pride, strengthens belonging, and affirms that Hmong language and culture are vital to MMSD’s future.
Vang-Vue has been instrumental in advancing the Hmong Heritage Bilingual Program, one of the only programs of its kind in Wisconsin and among few nationally. Through bilingual and biliterate instruction, the program supports academic growth alongside identity development. Under her leadership, it has grown in enrollment, coherence, and visibility, demonstrating both sustainability and long-term impact. Her work aligns with MMSD’s future goals by preparing students for a multilingual world while preserving a heritage language at risk of decline, positioning Hmong language learning as both academically rigorous and essential to honoring community history.

The program serves heritage Hmong students who have often been underserved in English-only systems. By building on students’ home language, Vang-Vue strengthens engagement, identity, and academic outcomes. She ensures equity is embedded across curriculum, staffing, and instruction, making culturally and linguistically responsive practices central to the program’s design and impact.

A defining strength of her leadership is core content learning experiences grounded in authentic family and community partnership. Recognizing Hmong history as an oral tradition, she elevates grandparents, parents, and community leaders as “history keepers” whose lived experiences shape instruction. Elders share stories, traditions, and historical perspectives not found in textbooks, positioning families as co-educators rather than participants. This approach builds intergenerational pride and ensures the program reflects and sustains the community it serves.

Sustaining a high-quality bilingual program presents challenges, particularly a limited pipeline of licensed Hmong-speaking educators. Vang-Vue addresses this by growing talent from within. She supports staff with strong linguistic and cultural assets through coaching, mentorship, and leadership opportunities, helping them move into key teaching roles. By encouraging licensure, strengthening instructional practice, and building confidence in bilingual pedagogy, she builds internal capacity that ensures continuity, quality, and cultural authenticity.

Students in the program develop pride in their identities while achieving academically, and the school culture reflects confidence, belonging, and cross-cultural understanding. Under Vang-Vue’s leadership, pride is not symbolic—it is embedded in instruction, relationships, and community partnerships. Principal Nkauj Nou Vang-Vue exemplifies “Championing MMSD’s Future” by advancing a program that elevates identity, centers community knowledge, and builds sustainable systems for bilingual education, creating a lasting impact grounded in pride, equity, and cultural strength.